Over 2 billion year ago, the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis completely transformed the earth's ecosystems by enabling the extraction of electrons and protons from abundant sources of water using sunlight and releasing O2 into the previously anaerobic atmosphere. Solar-driven water oxidation is uniquely performed in nature by the Photosystem II (PSII) complex; however, under normal operation PSII generates and is damaged by reactive oxygen species, which also damage other cell components. Moreover, the oxygen released during photosynthesis induces stress to the organism and impairs other important metabolic functions, such as CO2 fixation and H2 production. The net output of the light reactions of photosynthesis is to produce ATP and NADPH, which are used by the organism to make a wide array of complex organic molecules, many of which are cost prohibitive to make synthetically for commercial applications.